Hello,
During the autumn months last year, I ran a mini series here on my blog every Wednesday called Tea & Tips. I was lucky enough to have a PR expert friend of mine, Rachel Burks, Managing Director of local PR agency Porcupine PR, share some great advice on PR, marketing and handling media for small business. I'm delighted to say that she's provided me with some more wonderful tips to share with you here each Wednesday for the next few weeks.
This week it's all about getting the most out of Instagram.
In the coming weeks she'll share some tips for:
- Writing a PR plan for your business - 28th January
- Tips for writing media/press releases - 4th February
- How to take newsworthy photography - 11th February
- The importance of a good headline - 18th February
I'll hand you over to Rachel now to share some tea and tips with you about getting the most out of Instagram...
We’re all more visually orientated these days. It may
not be relevant for every brand and business but we think Instagram is a great tool if
you’re after a younger clientele. We’re encouraging a few of our clients to dip
their toes into this highly visual virtual world and here’s why...
So what are the
stats?
There are more than 150 million active
Instagram users
Daily likes come in at around 1.2 billion
And on average 55 million photos are
shared each day.
Who uses Instagram?
The young
and the tech-savvy. So if you have a brand that fits this audience, then it’s
an excellent tool in your PR armoury.
What are the benefits?
It’s free
It’s fun with a capital F and offers
endless opportunities for creativity
It’s all about sharing experiences via
images, video, photo tagging and re-posts
It’s the largest ad-free social network
out there.
Want to give it a go – here
are our top five tips:
- Start with a clear plan of your objectives – what do you want to achieve? If your focus is on return on investment, then this platform is not the best for conversions and sales – although it is free to sign up for, it will take time and dedication to get the best from it
- Post creative content that is current,
newsworthy, that taps into the latest trends and is seasonal
- Use hashtags consistently to drive
awareness, particularly during specific PR campaigns but don’t over use
them, that can really turn people off
- Take care with your posts: Instagram is
not an online catalogue. If you treat it as such and make it salesy you
will lose followers
- Unless you’re working on a specific
campaign we wouldn’t recommend more than two to three posts a day. It’s
best not to over-do it and saturate your audience. No one wants to be
bombarded, especially the young and tech-savvy, they have no time for it!
Thanks for that advice Rachel. Next week she will give some tips on a writing a PR plan for your business.
If you missed any of the posts from the series last year, you can catch up here:
Meet you back here for a cuppa and some more tips next Wednesday!
Best wishes
